THE CULTURE OF YOUR SALES TEAM CAN COST YOU OR SERVE YOU - IGNORE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK

You Either Love Talking About Culture Or You’d Rather Ignore It

Company culture is one of those polarizing concepts.? Some people are all in, while others are of the view that it’s all a little overrated.? I’m not going to take a position either way in this Newsletter, what I will do is explore what culture is and specifically how the culture of your sales team will either cost your business in multiple ways, or powerfully serve your business.

So let me quickly address culture as a concept.??

You will have a culture in your business no matter what.? The question is whether that’s a culture that serves your business and one you want, or a culture that harms your business.

Ultimately, culture defines the character of the business and the marketplace judges you by your character.? Your character tells your prospects whether they can trust you or not.

At it’s simplest possible core, culture may just be about the values that prevail in your business.

A Very Simple Model For Organisational Culture

Putting everything else aside, the model challenges every leader to make sure that everyone knows the values that matter to the company.? If these are not agreed and known, everyone will make up their own.? Nature cannot tolerate a vacuum and a vacuum of values will be filled by other values you may not choose or want.

The real work of culture is to do the work on values.

With the values known, they need to be shown.? Values are only shown when we can see them.? This is always demonstrated in observable behaviour.? Every action taken, every word spoken, every interaction finds their way back to values that drive those observable behaviours.? You must be able to translate the values back into the behaviours you want to see.

The outer ring may well be the most important part of the model.

Values are demonstrated in two contexts - in the green when you’re succeeding and in the red when you’re in adversity.? Anyone can demonstrate the values during success.? The real test is how the values show up in adversity.? This is where the greatest calibration must take place.? How do you expect your teams to behave under adversity?

The key to the model is the integrity line.? In a great culture EVERYONE knows where the integrity line sits.? There is an incontestable understanding of what is okay and what is not.

Choose The Specific Culture You Want For Your Sales Team

So far we’ve been talking about culture at a general level.? One area of your business where you MUST establish a clear values driven culture is in your sales team.

The first judgement the marketplace makes about your company happens when they interact with your sales team.

If the prospect becomes a client, the judgements they make about you over the first stages of engagement will still find their way back to the interaction with the sales team.

However, at this point they will be experiencing alignment or misalignment to the values demonstrated by the sales team.

In short, your sales team sets the culture tone that the market place will judge you by.

Your sales team MUST know and show the values.? More importantly, they absolutely must have a clear integrity line that ensures the right values will show up in both success and adversity.

For example, they won’t over-promise, manipulate or deceive when sales are difficult to close and they don’t become arrogant, lazy or belligerent when sales are running hot.

Is There A Simple Culture Solution?

Don’t we all wish there were.??

Culture is a function of conversation and communication.? It is the realm of leadership - building culture is one of the key areas where the best leaders separate from the pack.

Culture is the coalescence of the values of each individual, when expressed through the collective.? If we don’t talk about, compare, contrast and agree values, the collective will end up being reduced to the values of the individual at the lower end of the scale.

Real culture work, the character building work, is about elevating everyone to the upper end of the scale.

The culture of your sales team can make or break your business.?

Remember, values define culture, values show up in behaviour and the integrity line will be where your values are tested.

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Thanks for reading.??

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